Take That

Take That are a band that originated in Manchester, England in 1990. The original members were Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Robbie Williams, Jason Orange and Howard Donald. Between the band’s first single release, “Do What U Like” and “Promises” in 1991 and their cataclysmic breakup in 1996 when Robbie Williams left the band to pursue a solo career in 1995, the BBC described Take That as “the most successful British band since The Beatles, beloved of young and old alike.”

Take That’s dance-pop tunes and soulful ballads dominated the British charts in the first half of the 1990s. They released two of the best selling albums of the decade with Everything Changes (1993) and Take That: Greatest Hits (1996). According to the AMG Music Guides, “at this time were giant superstars in Europe with the main question about them not being about whether they could get a hit single, but how many and which would make it to number one.”

The band reformed with the exception of Robbie Williams in 2006 and released their first new single in 10 years: “Patience.” Following the success of “Patience,” they released the album Beautiful World which topped sales in 2006 and sold more than the current release by Robbie!

During 2007, Take That also wrote a song for the motion picture Stardust titled “Rule the World” which reached #2 in the UK charts and went on to be the 5th biggest selling single of 2007. Meanwhile the album Beautiful World was the fourth biggest selling album of 2007.

Take That are an English pop group who formed in 1990. The group currently consists of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, and Mark Owen. The original line-up also featured Jason Orange and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the group's lead singer and primary songwriter. Owen and Williams would provide backing vocals, with Donald and Orange serving primarily as dancers.

The group have had 28 top 40 singles and 17 top 5 singles in the United Kingdom,of which have reached number 1, as well as having seven number 1 albums. Internationally the band have had 56 number 1 singles and 37 number 1 albums.

Robbie Williams left the band in 1995 while the four remaining members completed their world tour and released a final single before splitting up in 1996. After filming a 2005 documentary about the group and releasing a new greatest hits album, a four-piece Take That without Williams officially announced a 2006 reunion tour around the UK, entitled The Ultimate Tour. On 9 May 2006, it was announced that the group were set to record new material together once again; their fourth studio album, Beautiful World, was released in 2006 and was followed up with The Circus, in 2008. The group achieved new success as a four-piece, scoring a string of chart hits across the UK and Europe while taking the number of records sold to 45 million worldwide.

Williams rejoined Take That in 2010 for the band's sixth studio album, Progress. Released on 15 November of that year, it was the first album of new material to feature Take That's original line-up since their 1995 album, Nobody Else. It became the fastest selling album of the 21st century and the second fastest selling album in British history.

In 2014 the band recorded a seventh studio album, this time as a trio without Williams and Orange. The album, titled III, was released in November 2014 and became the band's seventh number 1. It was preceded by the single "These Days", which became the band's 12th number 1 single in the UK.

Since 2011, Take That have set the new record for the fastest selling tour of all time in the UK with Progress Live, beating the previous record set by their Circus Live Tour in 2009, won the BRIT Award for Best British Group, and were named as Amazon's top-selling music artist of all time. In 2012, the band were announced by Forbes as the fifth highest-earning music stars in the world. In the same year, the Official Charts Company revealed the biggest selling singles artists in British music chart history with Take That currently placed at 15th overall, making them the most successful boy band in UK chart history.

As the most popular teen pop sensation in Britain since the '60s, Take That ruled the U.K. charts during the first half of the '90s.

Take That remained one of the most interesting and popular British teen pop phenomena not only of the '90s, but of the rock & roll era. Gary Barlow (born January 20, 1971) was always the central figure of Take That. As the lead vocalist and songwriter for the band, he determined its musical direction.

As a child, Barlow was already a gifted musician and, by the age of 14, he was playing organ in Ken Dodd's supporting band. One of Barlow's first songs, "Let's Pray for Christmas," was a finalist in an original Christmas song competition on the BBC television show Pebble Mill.

In his late teens, he came in contact with Mark Owen (born January 27, 1974) and Robbie Williams (born February 13, 1974), two other young musicians who came from middle-class backgrounds. Williams' father was a comedian and his mother was a singer; before the formation of Take That, he had briefly appeared in the British soap opera Brookside. Owen had previously auditioned and failed for the football team Manchester United. The trio formed the Cutest Rush, which had a short-lived career.

Take That released their debut single, "Do What U Like," on their independent Dance U.K. label in July of 1991.

The band didn't break into the big time until that summer, when its cover of Tavares' "It Only Takes a Minute" reached number seven. Following the single's success, Take That became a British media sensation, which set the stage for the group's debut, Take That and Party, to land a chart position of number five upon its release in the fall. Within a month, the single "A Million Love Songs" reached the Top Ten.

Throughout the end of 1993 and 1994, Everything Changes yielded hit singles, with the majority of the releases making their way to number one. Though it was a huge success in the U.K., Canada, and Europe, the album was never released in the United States.

During the summer of 1995, it became evident that he was getting ready to break away from Take That. Williams began tagging along after Oasis, who were notorious for their drug and alcohol intake. He became the target of a number of tabloid reports about his bad behavior, and he began bragging to the weekly music press that he was working on solo material that sounded like Oasis.

Since all the members of Take That were young men in their mid-twenties, searching for their own identities and desperate to retain credibility, they were beginning to feel uncomfortable with the shiny, polished pop that their group had trademarked -- all of the members, that is, except Gary Barlow, who had decided that he was the heir to the throne Elton John and George Michael once held.

In 2011, Take That's song "Love Love" was chosen as the theme song for the film X-Men: First Class and later, When We Were Young was chosen as the main theme for The Three Musketeers movie. Both tracks come off the EP Progressed.

90's Hits

Back For Good

Album:

Nobody Else
(1995)

Song Details:

"Back for Good" is a song by the British pop group Take That and written by Gary Barlow. It was released in 1995 as the second single from the band's third studio album, Nobody Else. The song topped the UK Singles Chart, and achieved great success in many countries around the world. The song went on to reach number one in over 31 countries.

Lyrics:

I guess now it's time for me to give up
I feel it's time
Got a picture of you beside me
Got your lipstick mark still on your coffee cup
Got a fist of pure emotion
Got a head of shattered dreams
Gotta leave it, gotta leave it all behind now

Whatever I said, whatever I did, I didn't mean it
I just want you back for good
Whenever I'm wrong just tell me the song and I'll sing it
You'll be right and understood

Unaware but underlined I figured out the story
It wasn't good
But in the corner of my mind I celebrated glory
But that was not to be
In the twist of separation you excelled at being free
Can't you find a little room inside for me

Whatever I said, whatever I did, I didn't mean it
I just want you back for good
Whenever I'm wrong just tell me the song and I'll sing it
You'll be right and understood

And we'll be together, this time is forever
We'll be fighting and forever we will be
So complete in our love
We will never be uncovered again